Before buying into anyone's vision of where public policy should go, we must think seriously about where we are now. This includes our economic and social structure, our government as a prominent feature of that landscape, and the way we currently make political decisions. The authors' views of where we are now lead them to propose a rethinking of our commitments as a society, our public responsibilities, and our processes for making policy choices--a rethinking that can help make government more responsive to changing expectations and changing needs.